Energy production systems that burn coal to produce power may include a boiler and a turbine. Energy production systems that are utilized in electricity production and other components of such systems are described, for example, in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2012/0052450, 2012/0145052, 2010/0236500, and 2009/0133611 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,954,458 and 6,505,567.
Oxy-combustion is a development for carbon dioxide capture and sequestration in fossil fuel (e.g. coal, etc.) fired power plants to replace combustion air with a mixture of oxygen and recycled flue gas to create a high carbon dioxide content flue gas stream that can be more easily processed for sequestration. In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2012/0145052, it is disclosed that some oxy-combustion systems may include an air separation unit, a boiler, an air pollution control system, and a gas processing unit for separating carbon dioxide from flue gas. The heat from the flue gas of the boiler may be captured by steam, which is then used to drive a steam turbine generator to produce electricity. The flue gas may then be processed to remove certain pollutants (e.g. NOx, SOx, etc.) and a portion of the treated flue gas may then be recycled to the boiler to effect combustion.